My Favorite Season

Fall has grown to be my favorite season for many reasons. One, it is my birthday. Two, I love the weather. My favorite, most comfortable outfit is jeans and a long sleeve shirt so fall is perfect for that. With that, I love the colors that come out in the trees. Three, I love listening to General Conference, which takes place in the fall and spring. Four, football resumes, both college and NFL. And I love football. Luckily, I've been able to do all of those things these past few weeks.

A few weeks ago, BYU played Utah in the rival game. We had some friends over and I made these color-fitting cupcakes.

Then, Joseph and I celebrated my birthday (his is in two weeks!). We went to Joe's mission reunion the night of my birthday and it was fun. His mission is growing so rapidly and great things are happening in Barcelona Spain. For my birthday, Joseph got me a cake turntable so I can decorate cakes better. I was quite excited. I also had the opportunity to talk to my family, which is always great! For a mutual birthday lunch, we went to Tucanos this weekend and I love going there! It was very yummy, as always!

The weekend before my birthday, Joseph and I had time to drive up into Provo Canyon and go up to the place where we took our engagement pictures, Cascade Springs. The leaves were beautiful and it makes me sad to know they will go away and white snow will blanket the area soon. But we enjoyed just walking around and looking at God's beautiful paintings.

My attempt at being creative.

General Conference came and went. Joe and I were able to get tickets from our ward over the summer. I love going to the Conference Center! We also went to Joe's parents for part of conference to see them. It was a wonderful conference. I still can't believe young men can serve missions at 18 and sisters at 19 now! And the announcement of two more temples in the world! What wonderful news!

September 11th

I wasn't planning to do this but throughout the day, I've thought a lot about what happened 11 years ago.

Eleven years ago, I walked into Riverside Elementary School and thought it would be just another normal day. A friend mentioned to the class that on the news, she heard something about a plane running into a building. We thought it was a complete accident. Little did we know that plane would change our future. Later in the day, our teacher announced what happened. The classroom across the hallway had the TV on and was watching footage. But our teacher would not allow us to go watch the news. That day was early release so I got home before my siblings. I put my backpack down, turned on the news, and called my mom at work. I remember the moment I turned the TV on, it was replaying the very moment the second plane crashed into the tower. At the age of 11, I had no clue what to think. Never before had our nation been attacked on our soil in my lifetime. I had learned about historical events such as the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Civil War battles. But never before had I lived through such an attack.

A few weeks later, my class went to the school district's school forest for the traditional camp trip. One night there, my class gathered around the radio to listen to President Bush announce that we were going to war against the people who destroyed our nation. Little did I know that my brother would fight in the war President Bush spoke about.

Fortunately, I was not related to anyone who lost their life with the terrorist attacks. I am proud of my brother who served (and survived) two tours in Iraq to fight against the evil in the world. I consider myself so blessed and grateful despite the evil nature of the attacks. It serves as a testimony to me that God is always watching over us despite the wickedness that exists.

Weekend Adventures

Our first weekend back in Provo that didn't include moving was quite eventful. On Friday, I decided to decorate some more cupcakes and tried tie-dying the frosting. It turned out all right.

 Then, for date night on Friday, Joseph and I decided to get a fish. My old beta fish died right after we got married and we just didn't get around to getting a new fish. So we are pleased to announce as the newest member of our small family... Alpha Beta.

 While at the pet store, there was an adoption table with puppies as usual. Of course, I had to browse and play with the puppies. I found a dachsund/pug mix that stole my heart! Unfortunately we have to wait to get a dog. But here is a picture of what she looked like. I named her Hotdog.

Saturday, we went to the Provo Farmer's Market. It was okay; nothing too fancy but we got some peppers and some yummy pears. After the BYU football game, we went hiking up Rock Canyon.

It looks like I'm falling but it was just a weird angle with the camera.

Then today I took an adventure and made homemade ravioli. Everything is from scratch, noodles, filling, etc. It was hard and tasted yummy. But in the future, I think store-bought ravioli is just fine.

Joe is working really hard.

 This next week brings many exciting times as well. I start my job tomorrow (Hooray for income!) and the rival game between BYU and Utah is on Saturday. Go Cougars!

Settling Down and Being Craft-y

We moved to Texas in May. We moved to Nephi, Utah in August. We moved to Provo, Utah in September. There's been a lot of moving this summer. And who knows when the time will come to move again...

But, now that we're somewhat settled down into our apartment, I had time to be craft-y. My job doesn't start until next week so I took advantage of the time. I completed some projects I wanted to do for a long time. I finally bought a slipcover to cover our ugly pink (and rather scratchy) couch. It looks much nicer now. We also bought some bookcases for our mass amounts of games and books. But the big project I did this week was this:

I bought the frame from DI for 75 cents and got the piece of wood from Home Depot for 54 cents! I bought the paint and that was it! I love it and can't wait to do more with it over the years.

Welcome Back to Utah

This week has been quite a crazy one full of TONS of ups and downs.Here's a recap. I didn't take pictures among the craziness so here's a picture of a cute puppy.

- We began our long trip back to Utah (27 some hours from Houston!) and stopped in Austin to see Joe's family once more. I learned how to can food for the first time and made pear butter.

- Monday morning, Joe checks his email and finds out that BP wants to fly him out for an interview for an engineering position (he leaves tomorrow morning at 5am). We stopped at some McDonald's in New Mexico with wifi so he could send them all his information for flight reservations.

- We arrived to our apartment in Springville Tuesday afternoon to find it a complete mess. Later, we found out it was broken into and trashed so we can't live there. We went to the library to find any available apartments to look at that night. The landlord agreed to refund our money so we were able to find a new place.

- We signed a new apartment contract Friday morning for a great place near the Provo Tabernacle (but can't move in until later this week!)

- Last Wednesday, I started my master's program and have enjoyed getting to know my peers in the program. There are a few others that went to BYU that live all around the country so that is neat!

- I set up several interviews with lots of companies in Utah while still in Texas. I went to my second one and they offered me a job! I have a real salary and everything! I start next week sometime! I am the new case manager at a care center for people with mental retardation and mental illness. Also, I supervise the recreation department.

So Joe and I have learned this past week that everything works out when we turn to the Lord and ask Him for help. We could not have dealt with all the stress without each other and the constant reminder that as long as we're together, everything will be okay. And honestly, things are working out better than we imagined. We are so blessed and look forward to what comes our way this year! We have a feeling it will be full of joyful moments!

Chemical Engineer for a Day

Since Joseph started working at DOW, I've wanted to see his plant and what he does all day. A few weeks ago, he came home and said that another employee had her family visit the plant so he would find out how to let me go. Well, on Saturday I got to go see Joe's plant! I was very excited to go and I even got to wear an orange hard hat outside and a special badge! For security reasons, I couldn't take any pictures but I found some online of what it looks like.

The little guy in a blue suit is probably one of the operators.

We went on a Saturday when it was pretty calm. Joseph said other days, there are lots of people running around, trying to make sure the plant is running well. Because of security, I was unable to actually go inside all the machinery but Joseph tells me he does that a lot. He keeps reassuring me that his work is safe but I doubt it sometimes. I loved seeing it and knowing what Joseph does all day.

Lion King and Shakespeare... All in One Weekend

This past weekend was probably the most exciting and fun-filled weekend in Texas. When we found out Joe's internship would be in Houston, I bought tickets to see Broadway's Lion King as it had been a dream of mine to see it since I knew it existed. We went Friday night and it was absolutely amazing and worth every penny. Joseph keeps saying that he enjoyed it more than I did so that's good and he's been singing songs from it all weekend. Since you can't take pictures/recording of the play, here is the online clip of the opening scene. Imagine it 1000 times better than the video clip, though. The singing left me in awe of their talent and the costumes were crazy amazing. Here's a picture of Joseph and I before the show started.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to meet up with one of Joseph's mission friends and his wife who live in Houston. We went out to a great pizza place in downtown Houston and then went to a Shakespeare outdoor theater thing. It was alright but we left half way through to go get ice cream.  We had so much fun with them and it was great to get out with another couple.